Cancel your pizza delivery readers, Congress didn’t declare pizza a vegetable.
The Washington Post’s WonkBlog is knocking us out of our pizza-induced food coma to give us the facts.
Congress declared tomato paste equivalent in nutritional value to that of vegetables.
WongBlog points out that the agriculture appropriations bill actually never mentions the words “pizza” or “vegetable.”
According to the Washington Post, “an eighth of a cup of tomato paste is credited with as much nutritional value as half a cup of vegetables.”
The White House’s proposal would have changed the measurements to reflect half a cup of tomato paste would equal half a cup of vegetables.
Congress, though, blocked the change. An eighth of a cup of tomato paste is still considered to have the nutritional value of half a cup of vegetables.
The point is, pizza isn’t a vegetable. Let us not forget that the other two main ingredients to a pizza are bread and cheese. The day Congress declares those two as vegetables, we’re throwing a pizza party!
For the time being, though, considering that 33.8% of US citizens are obese, maybe we should stop arguing over pizza and tomato paste and just have ourselves a handful of carrots.
